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Intensive Taijiquan in MALAYSIA September 2008

I will like to open this thread to share with all of our family members the experiences each one of us had during this amazing course in the magical Island of Penang.

First, I will like to thank Sigung for giving all of us the opportunity to have an intensive Taijiquan course and to keep this wonderful martial art alive.

Second, Wei Foong for organizing and doing all of the administrative work.

Third, to Si Jie Emiko for her passion in keeping this wonderful art alive and the professionalism shown throught and convincing Sigung to teach the course, the preparation, the follow up and the work done during the course, I really enjoy being there and training with you.

Fourth, to Si Heng Riccardo Salvatore, Si Heng Jeffrey Sigal, Si Heng Hubert, Si Jie Yumi, Sifu Rama and Sifu Piti, being around you all is an incredible opportunity to keep on getting treasures and teachings.

And finally to all of the family members that made this a magical experience for me.

I am also always grateful to the Guan Yin Pusat for allowing me to be a part of this incredible Shaolin Wahnam Institute.

I feel that now I have the necessary tools and with more discipline and practice, we will start in November teaching this wonderful martial art in Venezuela.

Ah yes, what a truly amazing week it was. For me there were countless highlights but here are just a few:

Sifu's clear, concise teaching style which is always based on transmitting the essence of Taijiquan. I feel very fortunate to have a Sifu who can bring the Taijiquan classics alive, thus enhancing my training and daily life.

Having the opportunity to cross hands with such a wide variety of practitioners including latin American giants, delicate yet powerful Japanese women and even a Scottish Dragon. Over the course of the 5 days, I feel like I had meaningful training sessions with all of the course participants.

Spending time outside of the official classes with Sifu, Riccardo and Rama Sihengs as well as my other sister and brother instructors and fellow Taijiquan practitioners. Whether we were sharing excellent meals, Venezuelan rum, durian or just sitting around being together, I enjoyed every minute of my stay in Penang.

Thank you, Tony for initiating this thread. I encourage all who attended the course to contribute and share your experiences. I suggest that we also use this thread to discuss the material covered during the course. Sifu has already started uploading video clips from the course onto his website. If you have any questions about anything from the course or anything that arises in your training, please ask your questions here, or start another thread.

My personal approach to incorporating what we covered in the course into my own training and teaching is that I'm starting from Day 1. For the next few weeks or longer I'm going to be concentrating on Stance Training and Moving in Stances.

I have two questions to check everybody's memory

What are two ways of increasing the speed of moving in stances without actually moving faster?

What are the five factors to take into consideration when we are training moving in stances?

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I also will like to start a topic about NON RESISTANCE, do not resist the opponent's force. Yield first to overcome. Or as Sigung says, start late arrive early.

I also believe, I have understood, that to be able to open the Shen and to be able to see your opponents next move you should try to have a state of complete presence, I think to achieve a state of complete presence you need to be in a state of "doing nothing" or inner non resistance and intense alertness.

So now for me the word SURRENDER used many times by Sifu Rama and now by Sifu Piti has another dimension, if one surrender the movements become unconscious and what one might think is a vulnerability it becomes your true and essential invulnerability.

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Quote:
What are two ways of increasing the speed of moving in stances without actually moving faster?

I think one way to increase the speed of moving will be to use the chi instead of using your muscles.

A good answer, but not exactly what I was thinking of. Also, when we use chi instead of muscles, we do actually move faster. I'm referring to two ways of refining our movements that were covered on day 1 of the course.

Jeffrey Segal

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I agree it was a great course - certainly the highest level TaiChiChuan course I have ever taken. It was very exciting to be part of it and to share it with so many Wahnam TaiChiChuan brothers and sisters.

In answer to Si Heng Jeffery's first question.

What are two ways of increasing the speed of moving in stances without actually moving faster?

If my memory is correct
1. Reducing the size of waste movement - So when we step simplifying the intermediate movements.

2. Reducing the number of steps.

I think I'll have to check my notes before answering question 2.

Peter.

"Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day." Sally Koch

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I would only add, that when considering reducing the size of the movement we can divide this process into three stages: big, medium and small movement.

When we move forward using big movement, an observer would be able to notice that the shoulders are moving (although of course the movement comes from the waist)

In medium movement, the movement of the waist would be visible, but the shoulder movement would be more subtle.

In small movement, the shoulders and the waist would hardly appear to move at all, the main visible movement being at the knee.

Here's a lovely video series of Sifu explaining and demonstrating these levels as well as the other way of refining our movement which, as Peter posted above, involves reducing the number of steps.

It occured to me that some of you might not be posting on this thread because you feel shy about answering my questions. Please do feel free to tell us about your experiences during the course, even if you don't want to have a go at the questions.

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I was disappointed to miss the course, it sounds like it was incredible. But at the same time it is fantastic that Wahnam Taijiquan is growing so nicely, it can only go from strength to strength. Which fills me with joy

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Yes the course was fantastic. I have just returned home and I feel very, very privileged to have been there.

My deep gratitude goes to Sigung for conducting this course and sharing with us so many skills and secrets. I feel like a field in which hundreds of seedlings have been planted, that will grow into beautiful flowers when watered with daily practice . Thank you Sigung.

It has also been a great joy and honor for me as a junior to learn along so many Seniors. To all of you a big thanks from the heart for your help, your willigness to share your experience and your commitment of keeping these arts alive.

And to my fellow Juniors - it has been a great pleasure to meet you all and to learn with and from you.

I will try and share some of my personal "pearls" from this course in a next post ... once the bags are unpacked .

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I have gone through the first overview from the course. Reading, watching and practicing. Having a really good time and learning ALOT, enjoying Sifus marvelous teaching, watching many dear friends having fun. I look forward to the next part, even though i have enough already to keep me busy for a long time.

I would like to express my deep gratitude for Sifu holding the course and to all who were there recieving his teachings to ensure this beautiful art to be alive and flowing.

All the best,
/Niklas

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."/Martin Luther King, Jr.

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